Harnessing membrane-protein interactions to engineer synthetic and cellular lipid membranes mrsec.utexas.edu 512-232-9696 Tuesday, March 31st, 2:00 pm- 3:00 am EER Innovation Center | https://utexas.zoom.us/j/86717794964 Center for Dynamics and Control of Materials: MRSEC Seminar Membranes play a vital role in a variety of physiological processes. Recreating these processes outside of the cell will allow us to better understand them as well as design an entirely new class of materials that can sense, transport, or target important biological signals and molecules. In this talk, I will present our recent work harnessing lipid-protein interactions to design membrane-based nanoparticles (sometimes referred to as artificial cells) for biosensing and therapeutic applications. Our approach, bridging synthetic biology techniques and model membrane assembly, provides an innovative yet simple method to probe the role of membrane composition and biophysical properties on protein dynamics and to advance the design of nanoparticles that leverage membrane protein activity. Neha Kamat is an Associate Professor at Northwestern University in the Biomedical Engineering Department in Evanston, Illinois. She was trained as a bioengineer with special emphasis in biophysical analysis of biological and synthetic membranes, and in the production and characterization of membrane proteins using cell-free protein expression systems. She received a BS in Bioengineering from Rice University, a PhD in Bioengineering from the University of Pennsylvania, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard University/ Massachusetts General Hospital. At Northwestern University, the Kamat lab’s main research interests are to understand and harness biological membranes as a biomaterial for (i) fundamental biological studies related to membrane protein folding and function and (2) translational applications in diagnostics and disease. Neha is the recipient of a Young Investigator Award from the Air Force Research Office, an NSF CAREER Award, and the ACS Synthetic Biology Young Innovator Award

IRG 2 Meetings

Jan. 26th, Kent Zheng group Feb. 9th, Adrianne, Annual Meeting Practice Feb. 23rd, ???? March 9th, Zak Page group March 23rd, ACS Meeting, no IRG1 meeting April 6th, Dr. Neha Kamat (Northwestern Univ.), host Aniket Marne April 20th, Brainstorming May 4th, Jeanne Stachowiak

IRG 2 Meetings

MRSEC Boba Social Location: EER 3.646

Jan. 26th, Kent Zheng group Feb. 9th, Adrianne, Annual Meeting Practice Feb. 23rd, ???? March 9th, Zak Page group March 23rd, ACS Meeting, no IRG1 meeting April 6th, Dr. Neha Kamat (Northwestern Univ.), host Aniket Marne April 20th, Brainstorming May 4th, Jeanne Stachowiak

Are you preparing for campus recruiting? Learn how to create your virtual elevator pitch for virtual campus recruiting efforts. Join us to learn tips and tricks for virtual interviews and focus on how to prepare a visual elevator pitch that can help you with a virtual interview. This will be an interactive learning session focused on helping you tailor your elevator pitch to a virtual audience.

IRG 2 Meetings

Jan. 26th, Kent Zheng group Feb. 9th, Adrianne, Annual Meeting Practice Feb. 23rd, ???? March 9th, Zak Page group March 23rd, ACS Meeting, no IRG1 meeting April 6th, Dr. Neha Kamat (Northwestern Univ.), host Aniket Marne April 20th, Brainstorming May 4th, Jeanne Stachowiak

Annual Meeting & Industry Day